Extracts from Bhakti Yoga by Swami Sivananda
'Brahman is one. Truth or God is one. Scriptures are one. Vedas are one. Virtue and devotion, concentration, meditation and samadhi are one. Realisation, true religion, the religion of love and the religion of self-realisation are all one. Energy is one. Sun and Moon are one. Space is one. Thought image is one, though languages are different. Mercy and sincerity are one. There is no such thing as American sincerity and Japanese honesty. Body is one. It is made up of the five elements in England, China or Africa. Blood is one. The blood of a Chinese person, African, English or American is all the same. It contains the same blood-plasma, haemoglobin, red corpuscles and leococytes.
The feeling is the same in all. If you call anyone a fool or a vagabond he gets upset or angry. Everyone gets hungry, thirsty, has defication, exhilaration, depression, happy and wonderful moods. The heart, liver, spleen, bowels, the organs of action and sensation, the intellectual faculty that comprehends is the same in all. The goal to be reached by all - realisation of the self is the same.
Take the kernal, core or essence and ruthlessly throw away the skin or shell. Are they not fools who leave the grain and waste their time in quarreling about the chaff? I pity them. They are hopeless specimens of humanity.
Life is short and time is fleeting. Time is precious. Remember the goal and the purpose for which you have taken this physical body. Struggle hard towards the fulfiilment of the end you have come here to accomplish. Let all march courageously toward the goal, be it by train, tonga, bike, car or plane. Let all strive after the truth, which is fundamentally the same in all sects, cults or schools.
If the essence of all religions is one and the same, to what avail is this wrangling and quarreling amongst sects or people? Let us therefore strive in right earnest after the achievement of that great end of human life, the true essence of all religions - devotion to Gods divine love or Bhakti - which alone can free us from the wheel of births and deaths, give us higher knowledge, infinite bliss, supreme peace, essential satisfaction and immortality!'
Sri Swami Sivananda
If anyone is interested in the complete book Bhakti Yoga in PDF format please contact me on nickymangala@gmail.com with your email address and I will happily forward it to you.
For now have beautiful days taking care of yourself and those that surround you and find your oneness.
AUM
Nicky / Mangala
